“Even with the assistance of mana, it’s impossible to completely transcend the limits of a living organism. It’s the same principle that the great Duselduf cannot live forever without breathing or eating.”
Duselduf’s adjutant said.
“Isn’t the Outer Mind also human? Isn’t he similar to me?”
“What the Outer Mind commands are different. Look at this.”
The adjutant held out a photo of an Apocalid.
“It’s a completely unfamiliar creature.”
“A reptile with an exoskeleton would be the closest comparison.”
“You can’t know its ecology from appearance alone.”
“So we gathered information from the Enterprise Union’s Internet.”
The adjutant had to explain what the Internet was.
“And what conclusion did you draw from that sea of information?”
“What the Outer Mind commands are closer to cold-blooded animals. They should be weak to cold or heat. Even if not, they can’t match human environmental adaptability.”
“They could just wear clothes if it’s cold.”
“There won’t be a clothing factory for them. Preparing warmth measures for 10 million creatures would take considerable time. If we cut off the Outer Mind’s head before that, it’s our victory.”
“It’s a battle of time.”
Annihilating the enemy within a set time, or losing otherwise. It was Duselduf’s favorite and never-failing strategy.
“Yes. The outcome of war is determined by supply, and in extreme environments, supply is even more critical.”
“You’ve also found a suitable dimension to fight in, right?”
“Of course. It’s the ice dimension here.”
The adjutant pointed to a dimension on the black market map.
Duselduf promised him a reward and stood up.
There were dimensions of various environments in the dimensional sea. If hot mana gathered in large quantities, it became a desert or a dimension with magma underground. Conversely, there were dimensions filled with water or completely frozen.
Dimension 1698, meaning it was the 1698th discovered, which could be reached by passing through three gates from Magrain, was that ice dimension. It had remained untouched for a long time. Although rich in resources inside, it was surrounded by hard ice, making mining costs exceed profits.
So only explorers lacking drinking water would visit. Now, numerous dimension ships flocked there. It was the entire legion of Magrain led by Duselduf.
Upon arriving at the dimension, soldiers flew off, drilled holes in the ice, and drove anchors. The ends of those anchors were connected to dimension ships via cables, and the ships activated their mana engines. The cables tightened, and the dimension began to move.
Exactly in the direction of 1 Dimension Fortress. While the dimension moved, soldiers fortified the interior. They dug into the ice, went below the surface, built bunkers, and installed cannons.
The intention was clear. They would drop the dimension onto Enterprise Union territory, so try to stop it.
When that news spread across the Union, Choi Kangjoong naturally thought the Allied Forces would be formed again. But many Union council members opposed it.
“He’s human too, so there must be a way to stop the war without fighting.”
“We can still resolve it through dialogue.”
“There are 3 billion people living in Magrain. Not all of them want war.”
Many council members made such arguments out of sympathy. Human council members were the most numerous, along with Elf and Metra council members. The opinion was that if only the leadership changed, Magrain’s attitude would change too.
They even established a War Ceasefire Committee and started activities. Some council members had doubts about Choi Kangjoong. The reason was that he had not taken a single prisoner in battles against humans.
They openly asked on broadcast whether Choi Kangjoong was doing this out of personal greed.
“Don’t worry about it. They’re just trying to boost their profile.”
Iselin snorted as she said this to Choi Kangjoong, who was visiting her office.
“There are council members who say they fear my power.”
“That would be Councilman Mark Miller. He’s the same. If he were truly afraid, he would have kept his mouth shut and never said anything for the rest of his life.”
“Is that so?”
“He can say such things boldly because he knows the Lord Outer will just let it be.”
“Does that councilman do background checks too?”
“It’s not a background check, it’s psychological profiling of Union council members.”
Iselin said it casually on the outside, but felt a twinge inside.
When Choi Kangjoong chuckled, Iselin averted her gaze.
“Once information about Magrain’s internal affairs spreads in the Union, those opinions will disappear.”
“Are you going to spread it yourself?”
“No. I don’t have to. There are plenty of broadcasters desperate for a scoop.”
Choi Kangjoong fooled around with Little Lutal and then went home.
Not long after, Iselin’s prediction came true. The agents were dark elf explorers. Those who prided themselves on being brave and roamed the dimensional sea.
Most of them also did Dytube. Due to distance and facilities, they couldn’t do live broadcasts, but recording unusual dimensions or dimension monsters and uploading them to Dytube yielded good profits. Recently, an interview with a Barents Beastman by a Dytuber had become extremely popular, and spurred by that, they competitively rushed to Magrain.
They broke through Magrain’s perimeter with black-painted dimension ships and landed in Magrain. Passing through wastelands, they infiltrated cities and filmed Magrain’s culture and daily life.
“Did we come to the demon realm?”
“No, this is Magrain.”
“But they look so different from humans on Earth?”
The people of Magrain looked similar in appearance to those in the Enterprise Union. But their behavior was completely different. Non-Awakened were treated as livestock or consumables.
If someone over 20 had a physical defect and hadn’t awakened, they were ground up and scattered in the dimensional sea. They weren’t people, but parts of a society for the Awakened. Even more surprising was that the Non-Awakened took it for granted, and even among the Non-Awakened, hierarchy was subdivided by strength or social position.
The Awakened were similar. A hierarchy formed based on power, and the will of the strong mattered more than laws or customs. Magrain itself was a society that operated for the Awakened, the military, and conquest.
It seemed like the Ruin Legion east of the Enterprise Union had been given a human skin. Most dark elves secretly observed Magrain and then fled. But some made contact with Magrain people and conducted interviews.
It was audacity bordering on recklessness. As soon as they revealed themselves, they were dismembered on the spot for being a different race. Some of them were displayed as special products in butcher shops.
Others were captured. Upon hearing the news, Dielka became furious and dispatched a rescue team. Choi Kangjoong offered to help, but Dielka refused, saying it would spoil the dark elves.
When the videos taken by dark elves in Magrain were uploaded to Dytube, the opposition opinion disappeared instantly. Council members who talked about harmony with such beings were instead treated as odd. The War Ceasefire Committee fizzled out, and the motion to form Allied Forces was brought back to the Union Council.
“That’s why you should have formed the Allied Forces sooner.”
Choi Kangjoong sent three fleets to the approaching ice dimension. Even with numerical inferiority and no Allied Forces, he was confident of victory. As long as Serad supplied plenty of mana missiles and bombs.
“This time, I’ll give it to the Swarm Lord.”
He considered giving it to the Dark Eater, which would breach the enemy line first, but the risk of sympathetic detonation from attacks pouring in from all sides was high.
“How many dimension ships are there?”
The ice dimension had come close enough to be visible to the Sky-eye Giant.
“There are 10,000 ships.”
But half were fishing boats or cargo ships for transport and supply. The number of dimension ships that could be called warships was about 5,000. Troops exceeded 200 million.
With 20 million Walkers, the enemy was roughly ten times stronger. Nevertheless, Choi Kangjoong’s orders were simple.
“Then we’ll just break through.”
Choi Kangjoong left everything to Kuong. The largest and oldest Apocalid controlled the Dark Eater and the Swarm Lord. The Dark Eater surged ahead with rapid mobility. The Swarm Lord and Kuong followed in turn.
“I wonder if the mana suppression trait will work?”
At Choi Kangjoong’s question, Kuong sent five Central Command Giants to the Dark Eater. If they spread an Apocalid World among the enemy dimension ships, they could see if mana suppression activated.
The enemy’s attacks poured down on the protruding Dark Eater. Magic and shells struck the chitin armor. Choi Kangjoong had expected a spectacular sight but was soon disappointed.
It was because the enemy dimension ships desperately scattered.
“Should I have sent Kuong first to break the mana engines?”
“Kuong.”
Kuong agreed. He could open a gate or go himself to summon Kuong in the middle of the enemy formation, but he decided to leave it to Kuong for now.
“Anyway, scattering is the same.”
The Dark Eater, advancing through the gaping enemy line, suddenly turned upward. The enemy dimension ships scattered even more. Some dimension ships got caught on the Dark Eater’s horns, but not many.
“Assault ships do their job with that.”
Just preventing the enemy from attacking or evading was enough for the assault ship’s part.
The Swarm Lord entered through the hole the Dark Eater had made. It scattered small Apocalids and mana missiles in all directions. Any dimension ship hit by a mana missile inevitably became scrap metal.
“There’s a big technological gap compared to M2721.”
Magrain’s technology was inferior to modern Earth’s. Intercepting mana missiles was barely done with magic, and even that had a low success rate.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Dimension ships melted like snow touched by fire. Even though the speed was faster than expected, Duselduf did not panic.
What he aimed for was the annihilation of the enemy’s ground forces.
The fleet only needed to hold out until then. That was the purpose of the dimensional fortress.
Until the dimension was occupied, the dimension ships would become unrelenting, attacking the dimensional sea.
“Come.”
Duselduf raised his spear and shouted.
The Swarm Lord’s belly opened and bio pods fell.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The bio pods broke through the ice and became embedded inside. The doors wouldn’t open, so the Apocalids inside had to cut them with their scythe claws. What greeted the Apocalids as they emerged from the bio pods was endless ice and a cold so intense that spraying hot water would freeze it midair.
Originally, the Apocalid’s method of dealing with cold was only repeated contraction and relaxation of muscles. They had to move or shiver slightly to generate heat. With the Extreme Evolution evolution code, that wasn’t necessary.
When heat was taken away, source energy rotated. That source energy brought back heat, preserving the Apocalid’s body temperature. If there was too much heat, the opposite happened. As long as the external temperature wasn’t around 1,000 degrees, the Apocalid wouldn’t collapse.
Scrape scrape scrape scrape scrape scrape.
Walkers drilled holes in the ice with skill akin to boring through rock. With the Central Sky-eye Giant’s wave radar pinpointing enemy positions, there was no fear of getting lost.
Crash!
The walls of the bunker where mages were stationed collapsed. Humans, all bundled up thickly, fired magic wildly through the hole in the wall. Light flashed in the dark hole. Smoke leaked out.
“They must be dead?”
“It exploded in that narrow space. They must be dead.”
They didn’t know that the Apocalid had the Magic Resistance evolution code. The physical impact from the magic was transmitted as is, but it was nothing to the stage 8 Psionic Chitin Armor and the chitin reinforced with mineral output.
Thump.
The Walker that came out of the hole fell. A monster 2 meters long with its back covered in hard shell. Its hard jaw, capable of cutting steel, opened wide.
Snap.
The Walker leaped. The waist of the mage, who had been diligently firing magic upward, was severed. Blood splattered on the soldiers’ faces.
“Aaaargh!”
With a scream-like shout, they struck down with a spear.
Ting!
The spear tip, deflected by the chitin armor, stuck into a soldier’s foot. More Walkers burst out of the hole. The soldiers in the bunker were wiped out in an instant.
The last one activated the fuse of a bomb placed on the floor.
Boom!
Bodies were blown to pieces. The cracked ice turned bright red. The Walker curled into a ball and bounced around. When the shock subsided, it stretched out again and began to dig a tunnel.